Some of you know that I have a hobby of translating bits of the Dragonrider books into Esperanto. I've come across a sticking point with the word 'wherry'.

'Wherry' is a somewhat (to me) obscure word which suits it's purpose in the books. Unfortunately, to simply translate it into Esperanto the bird like creature would be called a 'flat boat' literally.

For a while I just 'adopted' it into the language, but because of the orthographic changes that are mandated for that, the word became 'Verio'. That would be OK, except that it's then a very narrow word only found in the books.

So like usual, I'm asking those of you who either have or read the Pern novels in a language other than English, to let me know how the word 'wherry' was handled.

Thanks,
Daccio

If only the Pernese knew how lucky they are to have but one language on their world!

Trying to puzzle this out on my own, I've come up with two possibilities.

The E.E.C. team could have noted the similarities between a wherry and a griffon and named it a griffon instead. It works as far as a griffon is birdlike, and the feather tufts might remind them of the fur of the lion's body. The Esperanto word for griffon is 'grifo', so at least it's short. The problem I have with griffon is that it is set as a symbol of nobility and a wherry is basically considered second class, being an eater of carrion.

The E.E.C team might as easily have called wherries something else from mythology. There is a dragonlike creature called a Wyvern. It's considered a type of dragon (a plus) but has only a pair of legs and a pair of wings. Another plus is that the word wyvern resembles wherry (well, a little.) Left to myself, this is the term I'd use to name wherries in Esperanto: Viverno.

Given the relationship between dragons and whers, I feel like a wher would be closer to a wyvern. Maybe not in body type, but more like...a less evolved dragon.

To me, a wherry is something (according to the drawings in the dragonlover's guide to pern) like a stringy-feathered emu or ostrich. Although you could posit that maybe "wherry" was like a "turkey". Except Pernese.

Given the relationship between dragons and whers, I feel like a wher would be closer to a wyvern. Maybe not in body type, but more like...a less evolved dragon.

To me, a wherry is something (according to the drawings in the dragonlover's guide to pern) like a stringy-feathered emu or ostrich. Although you could posit that maybe "wherry" was like a "turkey". Except Pernese.

For wher I found an alternate term for a european dragon, wyrm. transliterated into Esperanto it becomes virmo. Since they are mostly used as watchwhers I'd augment that to gardvirmo.

Naming Wherries gave me a hard time and I'm not completely happy with my solution. Makes me wish I hadn't sold my Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. There's got to be some monster that is turkeylike, but not noble as a gryphon.

How about translating the Norfolk sailing barge 'Wherry' (or the Thames water taxi 'Wherry') into whatever tongue you wish?

I tried that route, unfortunately while the English language has this fine stock of obscure names for many things. in esperanto a wherry is simply a boat (boato) which is an everyday word. I even went as far as finding 'wherry' in the King James Bible to see what it was in my Esperanto version, but it was just 'boat'.

That's pretty much why I got the idea of using obscure dragon types to name wherries and whers. Unfortunately a lot of dragons in mythology are actually winged serpents.

I suppose could take a line from the book by John Brunner, The Crucible of Time. It's about a completely non-human race. In order to give the reader an impression of the alienness, yet still communicate the essence of what he meant he simply changed a vowel here and there, so a spider shaped animal, used for transportation was called a spuder.

I could do that in this case. The word for dragon is drako. I could call a wher a draĉo. The 'aĉ' is actually a suffix that would give the impression that the creature might resemble a dragon, but is somehow undesirable.

Trying to puzzle this out on my own, I've come up with two possibilities.

The E.E.C. team could have noted the similarities between a wherry and a griffon and named it a griffon instead. It works as far as a griffon is birdlike, and the feather tufts might remind them of the fur of the lion's body. The Esperanto word for griffon is 'grifo', so at least it's short. The problem I have with griffon is that it is set as a symbol of nobility and a wherry is basically considered second class, being an eater of carrion.

The E.E.C team might as easily have called wherries something else from mythology. There is a dragonlike creature called a Wyvern. It's considered a type of dragon (a plus) but has only a pair of legs and a pair of wings. Another plus is that the word wyvern resembles wherry (well, a little.) Left to myself, this is the term I'd use to name wherries in Esperanto: Viverno.

Getting back to the title of this thread, I found an even better candidate for a Esperanto term for 'wherry'. It's a mythical creature, somewhat draconic, but with a rooster's head, so it could be considered somewhat bird-like. It's a cockatrice, which I'd bring into Esperanto as 'kokotrico'.

Naming Wherries gave me a hard time and I'm not completely happy with my solution. Makes me wish I hadn't sold my Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. There's got to be some monster that is turkeylike, but not noble as a gryphon.